Coffin Fly
By Tom Six

Walt Dette and Ted Townsend (a game warden from Westchester County, NY)
created this fly. They are considered co-designers of the pattern.

One version of the fly was tied with black hackle tips for wings and was first tied
on a day when Townsend attended a funeral and so it was dubbed the "Coffin Fly".
The name has never changed although the pattern is different today. According to
Dette the insect was much more prolific back in the twenties and thirties and you had
to keep your mouth shut during a hatch or you would inhale them during the spinner
fall. The hatch usually lasted for about a week. The coffin fly (size 12) has even
taken a sixteen-pound salmon caught by Winnie Dette.

In my humble opinion if you can obtain a copy of Eric Leiser's book The Dettes,
A Catskill Legend it would be interesting reading and also has more Dette
patterns to try for tying and fishing.

This fly is an imitation of a large May fly Ephemera guttulata spinner, which many
anglers mark the climax of the Eastern season. The flies are known by several local names:
shad flies, May flies, Green Mays and other names.

Materials

Hook: Dry fly, long shank, size 12 or 14.

Thread: Black.

Tail: Black and white peccary hairs.

Underbody: White poly yarn.

Body: White saddle hackle with the barbs trimmed
to a short stubble, wrapped over the underbody. The wraps
should not touch each other.

Rib: White 3/0 thread, counterwrapped over
the trimmed hackle body.

Wing: Divided teal flank, well marked.

Hackle: Golden Badger.

Tying Steps:

1. Using the thread, dress the hook with a base coat of
thread then attach the teal flank segments and divide them
using the figure 8 method for wing division.

2. Select 2 or 3 golden badger hackles and secure them in
behind the upright teal wing segments. Do not wind the
hackles at this time.

3. Wind the thread back to a point on the hook just above
the barb and secure the tail fibers of black and white peccary
hairs divided into place. (Using 3 fibers) Allow one to go
straight back, divide the others one to the left and one to
the right.

4. Tie in the white poly yarn, a white saddle hackle, and white
3/0 thread at this point. Wind the tying thread forward to just
behind the hackle and the wings.

5. Wind the white poly yarn forward making a smooth body,
and using the tying thread secure it.

6. Wind the saddle hackle forward to the same point and secure
it with the tying thread. Making sure as you do this to wrap the
hackle so that the wraps do not touch each other but are not
palmered forward. Clip off the end of the hackle left over then
trim the hackle barbs to short stubble.

7. Wrap the 3/0 white thread which is the rib forward making sure
to counterwrap it over the trimmed hackle. Secure it with the tying
thread at the same point that the poly and the white hackle are
secured.

8. Next wrap the tying thread in front of the wings and to a point
where the head of the fly will start.

9. Wrap the golden badger hackle 2-3 times behind the wings and
then the same in front of the wings, don't forget to weave the hackle
as you wrap it so that it doesn't pin down other hackle barbs previously
wrapped. Tie each hackle off and trim, and then tie a nice tapered
head.

More:

According to Ernest Schwieber, Jrs' book. Matching the Hatch,
"About three days after the duns have hatched, the earliest spinners
appear at twilight. First they are high in the air over the stream, dropping
lower and lower until the air over the water is filled with them. The transformation
is so complete [from the dun] that many anglers do not believe they are the same
insect that hatched before."

"Trout can waste no time when they feed upon these spinners, for they ride the
water briefly to oviposite. Rises are usually showy and determined, particularly
in fast water. Excellent results can be obtained by casting directly to the rises
shortly after a fish has shown miself. The trout seem to by-pass drifting spinners
as long as the live egg-filled variety are still in the air."